The UK added a net 107,000 customers, boosting the total customer base to more than 2.4m. Credit quality remained 'strong', but the proportion of balances in arrears worsened from 2.8% to 2.9%. UK profits between the second and third quarters rose from £4.6m to £9.4m.

Egg, 80% owned by Prudential, claimed its market share in credit cards had reached 5%. It paid £5m for online financial supermarket Zebank and hopes to win a million French customers within three years.